The present invention relates to a rotary-piston machine comprising a housing having a cavity, a rotor received in the housing, which rotor has a rotor axis and a peripheral surface, inlet and outlet passages in communication with said cavity, one or more vanes radially slideable received in slots in the rotor, each vane extending radially from the internal surface of the housing to the rotor axis, and at least one working chamber being part of the cavity and is defined by the internal surface of the housing, the peripheral surface of the rotor and the side surface of at least one vane.
The rotary-piston machine is a thermodynamic machine, which by some modifications can be utilised as combustion engine, heat exchanger, punip, vacuum pump and compressor. The rotary machine can be assembled in several units and in series so that the machine principle is used both for the compressor unit and the combustion engine unit in a super charged engine. It is to be stated this early that the rotary machine has no crankshaft and that the power supplied to or taken out from the machine is effected directly to or from the rotor.
Prior art combustion engines of the rotary type are embodied as rotary piston engines. Here is the rotary piston rotating, which piston is in form of a rotor having an arched triangular design, in an annular cylinder bore. Such combustion engines have, in addition to a complicated design, that disadvantage that the rotor have considerably sealing problems against the cylinder wall. Moreover, these combustion engines have a vast filel consumption.
A prior art combustion engine comprising an engine housing having a working chamber, which receives a continuously rotatable rotor, and inlet and outlet for combustion gasses, is known from DE-3011399. The rotor is substantially cylindrical and rotates in an elliptically designed cavity, which comprises diametrically opposing combustion chambers defined by the surface of the rotor and the internal surface of the cavity. The rotor is designed with radially extending sliding slots, which receive and guide vane pistons that are able to slide radially outwardly and inwardly in the sliding slots. The vanes are articulated connected via a connecting rod with a crank pin, which is further a part of a journalled crankshaft. When the rotor is rotating, the piston vanes are moving radially outwardly and inwardly in the sliding slots due to the fixed support to said crank pin. Thus the one set of vanes will act in the one part of the cavity, i.e. the one combustion chamber, while the other set of vanes will act in the diametrically opposite chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,219 reveals a rotary steam engine having two chambers and no valves. Also this engine has two sets of rotor blades with three blades in each set. Each set of rotor blades is turning around its own eccentric point on a stationary common crankshaft within an elliptical engine housing. A rotor of drum type is centrally mounted in the engine housing and defines two diametrically opposing radially working chambers. The two sets of rotor blades are moving substantially radially outwardly and inwardly in sliding slots in the rotor in accordance with the above described engine. The vanes are also here in their central end supported in an eccentric located shaft stub that is fixed. However, the vanes are not articulated, but are in the opposite end PivotTable journalled in a bearing provided peripheral in the rotor.
Pumps and compressors of the vane type are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,218 relates to a vane pump having rigid vanes and a rotor that is eccentric supported in the pump housing. The rotor has slots that the vanes pass radially through and are being guided by. On each side of the sliding slots are seals provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,873 shows a rotary engine of the vane type that can be used as motor, compressor or pump. This one also has an eccentric mounted rotor tho a number of rigid vanes are passing radially through.
Further examples of the prior art are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,295 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,372.